Children across the United States are being barred from reading books—not by their parents or teachers, but by their state governments. In January alone, Katy Independent School District banned over 140 LGBTQIA+ books from school libraries.  Language around book bans has been intentionally ambiguous, but PEN America defines the process in clear terms as “...any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by governmental officials, that leads to a book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished.”